~ Musings on Authorship & Inspiration

Negative Reviews: Three Questions to Ask Yourself

When I was about eleven or twelve, I gave my mother one of my early efforts to read. When I asked her what she thought, she began telling me all the problems with it. I had expected lavish praise, and so I responded by growing sullen—and after a few moments she said, “Look I can tell you it’s fantastic and wonderful if you want. But if you actually want to become a better writer, then that’s not going to do you any good.”

I went away and thought about it and decided she was right. Newly humbled, I went back and asked her to tell me what was wrong with the chapter—and she did.

Thus began my long history with negative feedback. I’ve certainly gotten a lot of it over the years, and it is key to growth and development—but only if it’s in line with the direction in which you want to grow and develop.

These days, I deal with negative feedback rather differently, whether it’s a scathing critique or a negative review on my Amazon listing. My first question is always, “Is it a fair comment?” Though I’ve heard of malicious rivals posting negative reviews, I don’t think I’ve reached sufficient fame or stature as a writer to be the target of such ill will. So, while I assume that any review posted is genuine, I also have to step back and ask if it’s fair. And I try to be brutally honest.

My second question: “Is it useful?” To put it another way: can I learn something from this negative review—does it actually provide useful information beyond the complaint being made? Reviews like “the characters didn’t grab me”, while valid with respect to the reader’s experience, are not very helpful in addressing why. So, while I can bear them in mind–for this reader, the characters were not effective–I don’t have a specific enough idea of why they didn’t grab the reader, so I can’t really act on the comment. But, if a negative comment actually provides me with some scope for guidance, then comes my final question.

Question number three: “Should I do something about it?” Sometimes, the negative review arises simply because a work hasn’t reached its intended audience. As a writer, you cast a wide net. Some people who pick up your book aren’t going to like it.

Before I launch into a real-life example, a brief disclaimer. Only two readers have reviewed Konstantin’s Gifts and I neither know the reviewers nor asked for the reviews. Two reviews isn’t a large enough sample size to really get a good sense of where along the spectrum the book actually falls–particularly given that they basically provide opposite messages to each other. The first was on Goodreads from user Nicola (Noodles220) and was basically an author’s dream review. I’ll paste it at the end of the post, for those who are interested.

althought it had believable characters, a plot, and an ok pace to the story. I found it too wordy, too much repeating of what I already read, I found my self skipping pages, trying to find something new or interesting.this was my first read of were wolves, blood suckers, and such. and I would not try a second. perhaps if you are into this type of book you would be more forgiving. for myself, I am starting a new collection on my kindle, “books I never finished.” just lost interest.

When I first read this, of course I felt a touch of disappointment–this book I’ve worked so hard on, and she didn’t even finish! But fast on the heels were my usual questions.

Is It Fair?

Usually I construe this broadly. It’s her experience of it–the pacing and so on didn’t work for her. I think that’s fair in the sense of being valid. It wasn’t the book for her. And she found it verbose. Also fair. I tend to be wordy–some people like this, while others might prefer a faster pace marked by a sparser style. It passes the “fair” test.

Is it Useful?

Again, I think it is. I know wordiness is a problem for me. So it’s helpful to know that I still fell into that trap with this book. Very helpful, in fact. So then, there’s the final question–the biggie, since this book was released and out there in the world already:

Should I do something about it?

While the reader clearly wasn’t the intended audience–she doesn’t read this genre, and clearly has a preference for a tighter style and faster pace, in this case, I actually decided that I should still act on it. I felt the book was too long, and this review spoke to that impression. As well, I had planned on doing a print edition of Konstantin’s Gifts, so I was going to be doing another proof of the entire mss anyway. When I began the proof, I did it in a form that could feed into both an e-book and print version of the work. I was as ruthless with myself in making cuts as I knew how to be. Then, once I completed that, I uploaded a tighter version of the book, in which I had cut out between 5,000 and 10,000 words.

Ultimately–notwithstanding my disappointment–reading such comments from a reader was helpful. I believe they helped to make the final product a stronger one.

Bad reviews are no fun, and different people deal with them in different ways. But if you’re putting your work out there, you’ll need to figure out some way to handle the negative feedback. For me the best way to process them is to use them as an opportunity to learn something and to grow as a writer.

I really, really enjoyed this book. So much so that it’s one of the few I’ve read in a long time that I’m torn between giving 4.5 or 5 stars.

I found it looking through the free downloads for the Kindle, but it’s a book that I’d gladly buy and will definitely be reading again at some point in the future (which in itself is unusual for me).

I really liked the whole flow of the story. The author has a way with words that I instantly took to, and I found the almost-but-not-quite version of our world she’s created with its split politics interesting.

I thought the action was well paced and I loved how the characters grew and developed – especially how Vasya moved from being subservient and self-blaming to a stronger woman that began to see herself in a different light, and how Theo started off with one set of ideas and ended up completely re-evaluating what he knew to make the right decisions in the end.

I don’t think I’d be able to give a good enough synopsis of the story to do it justice, so instead I’ll just say that I couldn’t put it down and finished it within two days.

I presume (and hope!) that there’ll be a second book, and if there is I look forward to reading it.

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12 thoughts on “Negative Reviews: Three Questions to Ask Yourself”

Terrific pointers for dealing with negative criticism. Negative criticism is invaluable for improving your work, and bad writers dismiss it out of hand, complaining instead that the reader/critic didn’t “understand.” Newsflash: if a reader doesn’t understand your work, it’s bad writing. We don’t get to sit alongside our readers and hold their hands and explain it all to them as they go along.

Absolutely, Karen! I’ve always been puzzled when someone who gave me their work to critique then starts proffering all sorts of reasons why the thing has to be the way it is in response to my workshopped comments. It makes me think, “well then, why did you want me to critique it? You’ve obviously made your decision.”

Same goes for negative reviews. Once your work is out there, there *will* be some people who don’t like it. Many won’t bother to review–they’ll just not finish. So any reviews are gold: someone has actually taken the time to say something about your book! I’ve had thousands of downloads on that one, and the result has been 2 reviews.

From there, part of the trick is figuring out whether the people who don’t like it feel that way because they are outside of your target audience and don’t read the genre. The other part is deciding whether the criticism is something you should be acting on. I always figure it’s worth being really honest with myself, because it’s not as if readers will be pulling punches (by which I mean readers whom I’ve never met, who just randomly find and read my book).

And of course, the balancing perspective is–do you want to give it the time, or move on and just work to apply any useful comments to future works? Possibly, if I had been at a different stage in the process, I would have had to let it go on this one and just taken the comment as a note to self going forward.

The first thing I thought when I read this was “critique” not review. A critique is for the writer to identify problems in the story. A review is for readers to see if they might like the book or not. Most readers aren’t going to know why the characters didn’t grab them, and they are not obligated to explain why. However, a critiquer IS obligated to explain why and may have to answer questions from the writer. Reviews are not critiques.

In an earlier draft of the post, I touched on this very idea–that the reviewer is writing to other readers. They have no accountability to the writer (the way, as you say, a critiquer does). Perhaps I should have left it in, to clarify–so thanks for bringing this up. I absolutely didn’t mean to imply that the reviewer has any obligation to the author, in posting a review–apologies if that’s what came over. But conversely (and this is what I meant to convey with this post), it does make sense to me to learn what I can from any source, even if the commentary is not directed at me as the writer.

This is why I ask myself the second question in the context of reviews. With critiques, you can usually ask for clarifications of your critiquer–if “the characters didn’t grab me” wasn’t enough, then you can ask the person to try to think of why, and to elaborate on the comment.

But there isn’t that option with reviews because as you say, the author is not the audience–the review is a signal to fellow readers. So “is it useful” is just about asking myself whether I, as a writer, can infer something useful out of something (a review) that is not aimed at me, but might provide some helpful indicators. What readers say to each other about one’s books can be very illustrative indeed, depending on the detail and nature of the commentary. I think it’s helpful to infer what I can out of them if possible, rather than just feeling down because someone didn’t like my book.

And if I can’t infer anything useful, well, fair play–I still appreciate that the person took the time to leave feedback.

The key word is constructive. I’ve read reviews where they’re trashing the book with no good reason. I saw a 1 star review and they said they’d read the first page and didn’t like the genre! Don’t leave a review then.

I’ve reviewed a couple of books I didn’t like, and both times I was constructive in what I put, otherwise I would have felt in the wrong to leave any review at all.

Thanks for commenting, Pete! I’ll admit I’m not big on trashing books in reviews either. I have posted some negative reviews in my time, but have tried to at least explain clearly why I didn’t like the book. I suppose from an authorial perspective, that is because if the author does happen to read it, I want it to be helpful.

But as well, as a *reader* I find that a review that says “I didn’t like it and didn’t read it past the first page” or “I just didn’t get into the characters” etc. doesn’t help me decide whether or not to read the book. I can very easily decide for myself from the excerpt if I’m going to get past the first page, or if the characters intrigue me. If I’m trying to decide whether or not to read a book, I usually ignore those reviews in making my decision because they tell me nothing. The reviews that go into detail about *why* the characterization didn’t work, or that reference plot holes, inconsistent actions or even talk about writing style, are far more helpful to me, in making the decision about whether to purchase/read the book and invest the time.

BUT, checking reviews is always my third step (if that) in deciding on a book. Step one is buzz/looking at the description/premise/recommendations etc–whatever gets me to look at the book in the first place. Step two is ALWAYS reading the sample or excerpt to see if I like the “voice”, style etc. and if the writing is something I could get into. Am I intrigued? If yes, then I *might* glance at the reviews to see if any of them express dissatisfaction about the author’s ability to bring it all together. But if I love the voice and the opening and am intrigued, often even that kind of comment isn’t enough to put me off (e.g. I recently read Tana French’s In the Woods. Really polarized reviews–some were really pissed off with it. But I was so intrigued by her early chapters, that even the negative comments about how she pulled it together and the resolution weren’t enough to put me off. I ended up agreeing with many of them–it’s flawed–but still loved the book overall and went on to read her next two. Haven’t had time to read the last one, tho).

I would not take seriously any “reviewer” who admits to not reading the entire book. In fairness to the author, that should be a minimum requirement for anyone posting a review–not that such “reviewers” are particularly interested in being fair. There is simply no need for posters to comment on everything they glance at. Just my two cents.

It is a bit odd, I’ll admit–to post a review having not finished the book (or even gotten very far in it). I have a few of those on various books. I guess it’s all information for potential readers. Though reviews, in all honesty, have minimal influence on my own purchasing choices–those are more often based on recommendations from friends, being intrigued by the premise, and reading the excerpt. Those are the things that really pique my interest. It’s only if I’m really fence-sitting that the review will make a difference.

I’m fortunate in that, while I haven’t received anywhere near as many reviews as I would like, I’ve also never received a bad one to this point. Some of the reviewers include some adverse comments, but nobody has written one like the one you received. Now, your review is not only unfavorable, it’s also just a lousy review. Whoever wrote it can’t write English, doesn’t capitalize, can’t punctuate, and I’m surprised that the spelling is correct. It was obviously tossed off without any thought. Personally, I would simply write off that kind of review as not worth bothering with. Sure, I would find it annoying, but I would pay absolutely no attention to it with the attitude of “Consider the source.” I would never rewrite a book on the basis of something said in an ignoramus’s review.
I’ve been fortunate to receive reviews by intelligent and educated people like you, Kat, and like Jack Urquhart – you’re both excellent writers in your own right. Those I would pay more attention to, but it would take a lot to make me rewrite something I considered finished. I guess I have a lot of confidence about my writing. Jack Urquhart gave v.2 of TQ a fine, very long review and he criticized the last part, saying it could have been half that length. Now, I know the book is too long, but the repetition in the last part is essential in my view. And strangely, another person (one of my conlanger acquaintances and a person whom I also respect as savvy, insightful, and full of common sense) LOVED that last part! He said he read the last third of the book at one sitting (always a compliment), and he didn’t complain at all about the length or the repetitiveness! Unfortunately, he hasn’t reviewed the book yet! I’ve asked him to, but he has never said he would. Anyway, it just shows that people bring their own approaches to one’s books and I wouldn’t be quick to change my methodology or do serious rewrites based on a single opinion.
When a critique is in question (as in the discussions above), that’s different. However, I don’t do critiques or beta reading or such, for two reasons. First, I’m overextended as it is and I don’t want to take on any more obligations. Second, when I find a piece of writing to be really inferior, I tend to get hot under the collar and feel like spouting off about what a lousy piece of work this is! I’m not diplomatic by nature and I’m pretty intolerant to really bad writing! And that’s hardly an appropriate way to encourage young writers and help them get better! LOL
And now as soon as I post this, I will look back and find twelve typos in it!

Heh–I’m the same re reading over what I’ve written and finding typos. I’ll be honest, Lorinda. I was probably looking for an excuse, in this case–otherwise I would have just considered the negative comment in the context of future projects and left it at that (i.e. not gone with step three). But even though when I released it as an ebook I had cut it as much as I knew how to–I couldn’t imagine cutting more, but still felt the book was too long–the final read through for print happened many months later when I had more distance (the last semester of law school, bar exams etc. intervened between the e-book release and the print release). So, reading that review spoke to something I was feeling, too. I certainly didn’t make the cuts on the basis of what I imagined that person would like (which I could never guess anyway!)–they were made with the hope that the book would be closer to what *I* wanted it to be. It’s still somewhat introspective and essentially the same book. Once these proofs are approved, though, this is it. No more changes–come what negative reviews may. 😀

I actually got a one star review on _The Clarendon Rose_ as well–that was the review I alluded to which essentially said: “the characters just didn’t grab me so I quit after a few pages”. There, I just shrugged and figured, it’s a personal reaction–just as I simply don’t get into some books for entirely subjective reasons. Since everyone else who has reviewed it on Amazon has been positive (mostly fives, some fours, one three), I figure the overall response is that it seems to be working for people who read the genre. And there, even if the reviews suddenly became overwhelmingly negative from here forward, I’d just leave it. That book is done. I’m not going back to tinker with it. It is what it is. I’d just take any useful feedback I can from the reviews and go from there.

And I agree–generally, one really shouldn’t embark upon a rewrite on the basis of a single review! In other circumstances, I’d just be asking myself whether the comment pertained to something I’d want to add to my self-assessment going forward on other projects.

I should also add that I was actually kind of glad she posted this, because it would signal to people that it isn’t a fast-paced, chip-chop kind of book–so people looking for that kind of read, who want Stephenie Meyer or what have you, may not want to read this one. If I saw that review on someone else’s book it wouldn’t put me off, in part for the reasons you mention, Lorinda, but also because I don’t mind slower pace in books.

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